Medical information terminal

ABSTRACT

A medical information terminal for input and display of medical information of a patient comprises a position information obtaining unit that obtains position information of the medical information terminal, an information concealing level setting unit that sets an information concealing level for description contents of each item of the medical information, and an information concealing unit that determines an information display threshold value indicating a threshold value at which the description contents of each item are displayed according to the position information obtained by the position information obtaining unit and conceals the description contents of each item if the information concealing level of each item of the medical information is at the information display threshold value or more.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a medical information terminal.Particularly, the present invention relates to a portable medicalinformation terminal used for an electronic clinical record card, animage control system and the like relating to a medical informationinput act.

2. Description of the Related Art

On a medical treatment site such as a hospital, paper clinical recordcards in a predetermined format have been used for recording a conditionor a treatment process of a patient. However, problems of storageplaces, a burden of manual copying work, difficulty of search and thelike are pointed out for the paper clinical record card, which containsmedical information. Thus, digitalization of the paper clinical recordcard has progressed.

On the medical treatment site, a house visit is made, that is, a doctordirectly visits the house of a patient for practicing medicine for apatient who has difficulty in going to hospital. In a hospitalintroduced an electronic clinical record card system, a doctor stores anelectronic clinical record card of a patient for the house visit in amedical information terminal and carries the medical informationterminal with him/her.

Since patients' clinical record cards contain highly personalinformation such as names of diseases, utmost care is required inhandling of the electronic clinical record card to be taken out. On theother hand, it is expected that, if a doctor can browse patientinformation by using the medical information terminal while the doctoris making a visit, medical examination of the patient can be smoothlyconducted. However, in the case of browsing of the patient's clinicalrecord during a visit, there is a concern that a third party other thanthe doctor and the patient might peep the clinical record information,and highly personal information might leak. If the doctor loses themedical information terminal storing the patent clinical record duringthe visit, it is also likely that the patient information leaks.

Thus, a method of preventing inadvertent leakage of medical informationto a third party by setting data to be copied to the medical informationterminal from a system in the hospital in advance is proposed (seeJapanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-136054).

Moreover, from the viewpoint of protection of secret, a method ofexecuting a peeping prevention function according to a position isproposed in the case of a mobile phone (see Japanese Patent ApplicationLaid-open No. 2009-288856). In this method, the peeping preventionfunction limiting display is executed at positions other than theposition registered in the mobile phone. Specifically, an extractioncondition for specifying a target of the peeping prevention function isset in advance in the mobile phone, and when the mobile phone is not atthe position set in advance, the peeping prevention function is executedfor a portion matching the extraction condition.

Other than the above, from the viewpoint of protecting personalinformation of patients, a method of limiting display in a medicalexamination assisting apparatus is proposed (see Japanese PatentApplication Laid-open No. 2008-250550). In this method, information ofthe patient currently subjected to a house visit is displayed on anexamination list display portion of the medical examination assistingapparatus, while information not directly required for the examinationsuch as the names, addresses and the like of other patients is notdisplayed. As a result, the doctor or a clinical technologist can graspa progress situation of the examination as a whole while personalinformation of other patients can be protected, since the names of thepatients other than the patient subjected to the house visit cannot bediscriminated even if a screen of the examination assisting apparatus isseen by the patient during medical examination.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, with the configuration described in Japanese Patent ApplicationLaid-open No. 2011-136054, secrecy is improved by setting data not to betaken out of a hospital, but diagnosing efficiency of a doctor mightdeteriorate if an amount of data that cannot be taken out increases.Moreover, from the viewpoint of prevention of mistaking a patient foranother patient, information such as names, addresses and the like ofpatients is data that should be taken out. Thus, if the information ispeeped or a terminal is lost, personal information protection is notsufficient.

Moreover, with the configuration described in Japanese PatentApplication Laid-open No. 2009-288856, the peeping prevention functionworks when the mobile phone is present at a position other than thepositions specified by a user of the mobile phone in advance. A portionmatching the condition set by the user is equally made difficult to beseen. That is, the items matching the condition become difficult to beseen since the peeping prevention function works for them. Thus, inorder to browse some items basically but to prevent only specificdescription contents in the information from being peeped in anoperation of the electronic clinical record cards, fine conditionsshould be set. Moreover, since peeping prevention function worksuniformly, it is difficult not to display the same descriptions in acertain item but to display them in the other items.

With the configuration described in Japanese Patent ApplicationLaid-open No. 2008-250550, patient information other than the targetpatient is concealed by selecting a patient to be subjected toexamination. Since a target is an electronic clinical record displaydevice in an examination room, personal information of the otherpatients can be protected. However, if the terminal is to be taken outof a hospital, information can be browsed by selecting the patient, andthus, personal information protection is not sufficient against peepingby a third party or loss of a terminal.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,and automatically conceals information in a medical informationterminal, which is set in advance in patient electronic medical recordinformation and might lead to personal identification, according to theposition by specifying a use position of the medical informationterminal.

In order to solve the problems discussed above, the present inventionprovides a medical information terminal for input and display of medicalinformation of a patient, comprising a position information obtainingunit that obtains position information of the medical informationterminal, an information concealing level setting unit that sets aninformation concealing level for description contents of each item ofthe medical information, and an information concealing unit thatdetermines an information display threshold value indicating a thresholdvalue at which the description contents of each item are displayedaccording to the position information obtained by the positioninformation obtaining unit and conceals the description contents of eachitem if the information concealing level of each item of the medicalinformation is at the information display threshold value or more.

According to the present invention, medical information of a patient canbe concealed according to the position of the medical informationterminal and can reduce a concern of leakage of personal informationthrough peeping by a third party other than a doctor and the patient.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description of exemplary embodiments with reference to theattached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an outline configuration of amedical information concealing system provided in a medical informationterminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of themedical information concealing system in preparation for a house visit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing forgenerating an information concealing level table.

FIG. 4 is a table illustrating an example of the information concealinglevel table generated by the processing for generating the informationconcealing level table.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing forgenerating an information display threshold value table.

FIG. 6 is a table illustrating an example of the information displaythreshold table generated in the processing for generating theinformation display threshold value table.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of themedical information concealing system when medical information isbrowsed.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of clinical recordinformation concealing display processing.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on a displayportion when a medical information terminal is in a hospital or the likeand all information in a clinical record data can be browsed.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the displayportion when the medical information terminal is at a position otherthan in the hospital and the house visit destination and some pieces ofthe information in the clinical record data are concealed.

FIG. 11 is a table illustrating an example of the information displaythreshold value table when an information display threshold valuerelative to a position is individually set in the clinical record dataof a patient.

FIG. 12 is a table illustrating an example of the information concealinglevel table when an information concealing level of a specific image 501is set to 80.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the displayportion of the medical information terminal when the medical informationterminal is in the hospital and the like and all the information in theclinical record data can be browsed.

FIG. 14 is a table illustrating an example of the information concealinglevel table when the information concealing level of a word“neuropsychiatric disease” is set to 80 in columns of a disease name andfinding.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the displayportion at a destination of a visit when the information concealinglevel table is set as in the example illustrated in FIG. 14.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described indetail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.

Embodiments of the present information will be described below. In eachof the embodiments of the present invention, “medical information”refers to information relating to medical practice such as medicalexamination histories, examination histories, search result lists ofexamination items and the like. In the embodiments below, a doctor isassumed to be an example of a user (operator), and a house visit by thedoctor is assumed in the description. However, the user is not limitedto the doctor, and the present invention is similarly available fornurses and carers who go for home-visit care. Moreover, a technicalrange of the present invention is not limited to each of the followingembodiments.

First Embodiment

First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described byusing the attached drawings and flowcharts. FIG. 1 is a block diagramillustrating an outline configuration of a medical informationconcealing system 100 provided in a medical information terminal 1 whichis the first embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter simplyreferred to as “medical information concealing system 100”).

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the medical information concealing system 100includes a CPU 101, an input portion 102, a display portion 103, adisplay control portion 104, a BUS 105, a position information obtainingportion 106, a ROM 107, a RAM 108 and a DISK 109.

The CPU 101 is a central processing unit and totally controls eachportion which will be described below.

The input portion 102 is a button, a keyboard, a touch panel or the likeinto which the user inputs various instructions. The variousinstructions input in the input portion 102 are transmitted to the CPU101. The CPU 101 executes processing according to the instructions inputin the input portion 102.

A liquid crystal display or the like is applied to the display portion103, and the display portion 103 can display medical practice records ofa patient.

The display control portion 104 controls contents to be displayed on thedisplay portion 103 based on current position information of the medicalinformation terminal 1 obtained by the position information obtainingportion 106.

The BUS 105 is a communication bus which is a transfer path of varioustypes of data. For example, a signal of an instruction to each portion(each device) to be controlled from the CPU 101 and data between theportions are transferred to a predetermined processing portion.

The position information obtaining portion 106 is a GPS (GlobalPositioning System) and measures a position of the medical informationterminal 1 by latitude and longitude and generates position information(GPS information) indicating the current position.

The ROM 107 is a read-only nonvolatile memory. The ROM 107 stores a bootprogram executed by the CPU 101, a control program of the medicalinformation concealing system 100, and various initial data referred toin various types of processing.

The RAM 108 is a readable/writable random-access memory and is used fortemporary storage of various types of data from each portion. The RAM108 stores various work regions which store data required for theprocessing, stacks required during the processing and various types ofdata whose values are changed during the processing. An informationconcealing level table and an information display threshold value table,which will be described later, are stored or configured in the RAM 108.

The DISK 109 is a mass storage device and changeably stores a largevolume of data. The DISK 109 is constituted by a hard disk and an SSD,for example.

Computer programs such as the boot program and the control program forcontrolling the medical information terminal 1 including the medicalinformation concealing system 100 are stored in the ROM 107 in advance.The CPU 101 reads the computer programs from the ROM 107 and executesthem. As a result, control of each portion is executed, and thefollowing processing and operations are realized. The computer programssuch as the boot program and the control program executed by the CPU 101and various types of initial data to be referred to during execution ofthese programs are loaded to a temporary storage unit illustrated as theRAM 108 as necessary and executed or referred to. In this way, thecomputer programs and initial data can be modified in the middle insteadof fixing them, and a flexible system can be realized. Moreover, uponend processing such as powering-off of the medical information terminal1, the CPU 101 stores the information concealing level table and theinformation display threshold value table stored in the RAM 108 in theDISK 109 in a process of the end processing. The CPU 101 reads thetables stored in the DISK 109 into the RAM 108 at the subsequent start.As a result, the doctor as a user can start using the terminal in apreviously halted state.

Subsequently, an example of a flow of preparation for a house visit by adoctor will be described. It is assumed that an electronic clinicalrecord system in which clinical records of patients arecomputer-readably stored is configured in a hospital, and that a doctorwho is a user can copy the clinical record data of a patient stored inthis electronic clinical record system to the medical informationterminal 1.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of the medicalinformation terminal 1 when the doctor sets medical information terminal1 to be brought with him/her before going out for a house visit.

At Step S110, the CPU 101 takes out clinical record data of a patient,who is a target for a house visit, from an electronic clinical recordsystem in a hospital to the DISK 109 and copies the data to the medicalinformation terminal 1 to be taken to the house visit destination.Specifically, first, the doctor inputs an instruction of copying theclinical record data of the patient into the input portion 102. Upondetection of the input of the instruction into the input portion 102,the CPU 101 executes this processing.

At generation of an information concealing level table at Step S120(information concealing level setting), the CPU 101 determines theinformation concealing level for each item in the clinical record dataof the patient and generates an information concealing level table inwhich each item is associated with an information concealing level.Contents of this processing of generating the information concealinglevel table (information concealing level setting) will be describedlater.

At Step S130 (information display threshold value table generation), theCPU 101 generates an information display threshold value table in whichposition information of the house visit destination is associated withan ID of the patient present at the house visit destination. Contents ofthis processing of generating the information display threshold valuetable will be described later.

Thus, the processing of preparation for the medical information terminal1 before a doctor goes out for a house visit is completed.

Subsequently, the contents of the processing of generating theinformation concealing level table (information concealing levelsetting) will be described by referring to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is aflowchart illustrating processing contents of the information concealinglevel table generation (information concealing level setting) at StepS120 in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of theinformation concealing level table generated by the processing ofgenerating the information concealing level table at Step S120.

At Step S1201, the CPU 101 obtains item names such as “name” and“disease name” from the clinical record data of the patient having beencopied to the DISK 109 and adds the obtained item names to theinformation concealing level table.

At Step S1202, the CPU 101 determines the information concealing levelof each of the items added to the information display threshold valuetable and applies the determined information concealing level to theinformation concealing level table. The information concealing level isa numeral value indicating a degree that the information should not beseen by a third party other than the doctor and the patienthimself/herself. The larger this numeral value is, the higher the degreethat the information should not be seen by a third party other than thedoctor and the patient himself/herself is. As a method of determiningthe information concealing level, such method can be applied that adefault value of the information concealing level of each item is storedin the ROM 107 in advance, and the default value is determined as theinformation concealing level for each item. The default value is setaccording to a content of each item and the like as appropriate. If thedoctor would like to give a high level of privacy protection, the doctormay edit the information concealing level table and execute processingof changing the information concealing level of a specific item. In thiscase, the CPU 101 has the display portion 103 display a menu for editingthe information concealing level table. The doctor inputs theinformation concealing level of the specific item into the input portion102 according to this displayed menu. The CPU 101 applies theinformation concealing level input into the input portion 102 to theinformation concealing level table. By having the doctor change theinformation concealing level as above, the information concealing levelaccording to circumstances specific to doctors can be set. Therefore,flexibility of the medical information concealing system 100 can beimproved.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which the information concealing levelis 80 for the name, address, telephone number and date of birth, 70 fora disease name and a medicine name and 50 for a diagnosis image.

Subsequently, processing contents of the information display thresholdvalue table generation at Step S130 will be described by referring toFIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating processing contents ofthe information display threshold value table generation at Step S130 inFIG. 2. The information display threshold value table is a tableillustrating correspondence between position information indicating aposition of a house visit destination and an information displaythreshold value at the house visit destination. FIG. 6 is a diagramillustrating an example of a configuration of the information displaythreshold value table. The information display threshold value tableassociates the position information which is a combination of latitudeand longitude with the information display threshold value at thatposition. If an instruction to browse clinical record data is input intothe input portion 102, the CPU 101 compares a current positioninformation in the medical information terminal 1 with positioninformation of the information display threshold value table in orderfrom upper entries. Then, the CPU 101 uses the information displaythreshold value associated with any matched position information inclinical record information concealing display processing (which will bedescribed later). On the other hand, if there is no matching, the CPU101 uses a default information display threshold value in the clinicalrecord information concealing display processing.

A method of generating this information display threshold value tablewill be described.

At Step S1301, the CPU 101 obtains a patient's address from clinicalrecord data copied to the DISK 109.

At Step S1302, the CPU 101 executes processing of prompting a doctor(user) of the medical information terminal 1 to set an address of ahouse visit. For example, the CPU 101 has the display portion 103display a screen for input and confirmation of the house visitdestination. The doctor inputs the house visit address into the inputportion 102 according to the display on the display portion 103. If theactual house visit address is identical with the patient's addressobtained at step S1301, the address may be used as the house visitaddress. However, if the house visit address is different from thepatient's address for some reason of the patient, if the patient isresident in a nursing home for elderly, or the like, the actual housevisit address needs to be corrected. Thus, at Step S1302, the doctor(user) checks and corrects the actual house visit address. The CPU 101sets the house visit address input into the input portion 102 to a housevisit address used in processing at Step S1303 and Step S1305 describedbelow.

At Step S1303, the CPU 101 converts the house visit address set at StepS1302 to position information which is a combination of latitude andlongitude.

At Step S1304, the CPU 101 registers the position information of thepatient's house visit address in the information display threshold valuetable.

At Step S1305, the CPU 101 sets an information display threshold valueto each piece of the position information in the information displaythreshold value table.

An example of a flow of preparation before house visit has beendescribed.

Subsequently, a flow of an operation of the medical informationconcealing system 100 when the medical information is browsed by usingthe medical information terminal 1 carried by the doctor for the housevisit will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operationexample when the patient clinical record information is browsed usingthe medical information terminal to be carried to the house visit.

At Step S210, the CPU 101 obtains position information (GPS information)indicating a current position of the current medical informationterminal 1 from the position information obtaining portion 106.

At Step S220 (condition determining step), the CPU 101 determineswhether or not the position information (GPS information) obtained bythe position information obtaining portion 106 at Step S210 is presentin the information display threshold value table. In this determination,allowance for some degree of an accuracy error may be set. For example,determination criteria may be such that the position indicated by theposition information obtained by the position information obtainingportion 106 is within a radius of 50 meters from the position indicatedby the position information registered in the information displaythreshold value table. As a result, an error caused in the positioninformation obtaining portion 106 of the terminal when the positioninformation is obtained can be allowed to some degree.

If it is determined that the position information obtained by theposition information obtaining portion 106 is present in the informationdisplay threshold value table, the routine proceeds to Step S240, whileif it is determined as not, the routine proceeds to Step S230.

At Step S230, the CPU 101 determines a default value to be theinformation display threshold value. On the other hand at Step S240, theCPU 101 determines an information display threshold value correspondingto the current position information from information display thresholdvalues set in the information display threshold value table to be thecurrent information display threshold value.

At Step S250 (clinical record information concealing displayprocessing), the CPU 101 displays the information in the clinical recorddata at the information display threshold value or more for which theinformation concealing level is currently set on the screen in aconcealed state.

Here, the clinical record information concealing display processing willbe described by referring to FIG. 8. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustratingan example of processing contents of the clinical record informationconcealing display at Step S250 in FIG. 7.

At Step S2501, the CPU 101 determines whether or not the processing atSteps S2502 to S2504 described below has been executed for all the itemsin the clinical record data. If it is determined at Step S2501 that theprocessing has been executed for all the items in the clinical recorddata, the clinical record information concealing display processing isfinished. If it is determined at Step S2501 that an item for whichprocessing has not yet been executed remains in the clinical recorddata, the processing proceeds to Step S2502.

At Step S2502, the CPU 101 obtains item names to be subsequentlyprocessed from the clinical record data. The item names here include“name,” “disease name,” “diagnosis image” and the like.

At Step S2503, the CPU 101 searches the information concealing leveltable generated at Step S120 before the house visit and obtains aninformation concealing level associated with the item name obtained atStep S2502. Then, the CPU 101 determines whether or not the obtainedinformation concealing level is at the current information displaythreshold value or more. If the obtained information concealing level isnot more than the current information display threshold value, theroutine proceeds to Step S2501 without executing the processing at StepS2504 for the item. On the other hand, if the obtained informationconcealing level is at the current information display threshold valueor more, the routine proceeds to Step S2504.

At Step S2504, the CPU 101 executes concealing processing for adescription content of each item.

The description content here refers to the actual name of the patientand the disease input for the item names “name” and “disease name” inthe clinical record data. In the case of an item such as the diseasename in which plural entries can be input, all the information input inthe column “disease name” is the description content. That is, the pastdisease names of the patient are all subjected to the concealingprocessing as the description content. In addition, in the case of anitem such as the item name “finding” in which the doctor writessentences, the whole sentences written in the finding column are thedescription content of the item name “finding.” Moreover, in the case ofan item such as the item name “diagnosis image” containing data otherthan text data, all the images pasted in the “diagnosis image” item inthe patient clinical record data are the description content of the itemname “diagnosis image.”

At this Step S2504, the CPU 101 executes concealing processing for thedescription contents. A method of encryption, ciphering, non-display orthe like is applied as the concealing processing method, here, if thedescription contents are text data. In the encryption method, a hashfunction may be provided in the medical information terminal 1 andapplied to the description contents to be concealed. In the ciphering,the description contents to be concealed may be replaced with acharacter like “*”. In the non-display, the description contents to beconcealed may be replaced with blank characters. If the descriptioncontents are those other than text data such as the “diagnosiscontents,” the non-display method is applied as the method of concealingprocessing. As the method of concealing processing for image data,first, the CPU 101 generates image data having the same lateral andvertical sizes as those of the image data to be concealed and painted inthe same color as a background color of the screen on the displayportion 103. Then, the CPU 101 controls the display control portion 104,and the display control portion 104 has the display portion 103 displaythe generated image data on a target image in an overlapping manneraccording to the control by the CPU 101. Other concealing processingmethods may be used other than the above as long as browsing of theinformation displayed on the display portion 103 of the medicalinformation terminal 1 (description contents of each item) is madedifficult.

The flow of browsing of medical information has been described.

According to a configuration of the first embodiment, when the doctorbrowses the clinical record data of a patient by using the medicalinformation terminal on the way to a house visit destination, themedical information terminal 1 displays items having an informationconcealing level at the information display threshold value or moreaccording to the position in a concealed manner. As a result, browsingcan be made by giving consideration to privacy of the patient.Therefore, possibility of leakage of patient personal information can bereduced in the case of peeping by a third party or loss of the medicalinformation terminal 1. Moreover, since the doctor browses the clinicalrecord data of the patient to visit while moving, efficiency of medicalexamination at the actual visit is improved.

Second Embodiment

In the first embodiment, the methods of encryption, ciphering,non-display and the like of the description contents are used as themedical information concealing method. On the other hand, in the secondembodiment, a method of non-display of a portion to be concealed, andenlarging and displaying a diagnosis image on that portion is used asanother concealing method.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of the display portion 103 of the medicalinformation terminal 1. FIG. 9 illustrates a situation as in a hospitalin which the information display threshold value is high and all theinformation included in the patient clinical record data (descriptioncontents) is seen. On a house visit, at a place other than the hospitaland the house visit destination, the information concealing level of theitems such as name, date of birth, address and telephone number rises tothe information display threshold value or more and the information isconcealed.

Information cannot be obtained from the concealed item during browsing.Thus, in order to effectively use the space, the display control portion104 displays the diagnosis image in an enlarged manner as non-concealedinformation according to control by the CPU 101. Then, the displayportion 103 displays the diagnosis image in an enlarged manner asillustrated in FIG. 10 according to the control by the display controlportion 104. FIG. 10 is an example of concealing the name, date ofbirth, address and telephone number from the state in FIG. 9, anddisplaying the diagnosis image in an enlarged manner by using the spacesthereof. As a result, the doctor can check a symptom in advance easily.

Here, a configuration of enlarged display of a diagnosis image isillustrated in order to effectively use a space for displaying concealeddescription contents. However, an item to be enlarged does not have tobe a diagnosis image. For example, the entire character size may beenlarged and the character size of a portion in which long sentences arewritten such as the past diagnosis records may be enlarged so that thedisplay can be seen more easily. With these configurations as well, thesame advantages as those of the above enlarged display of the diagnosisimage can be obtained.

According to the configuration of the second embodiment, by enlargingand displaying the non-concealed information, the concealed informationis hidden and non-concealed browsable information can be displayed to beseen easily.

Third Embodiment

The first embodiment has the configuration in which the informationdisplay threshold value table is generated so that the informationdisplay threshold value is uniquely determined according to theposition. On the other hand, a third embodiment has a configuration inwhich the information display threshold values are provided in pluralstages.

For example, the CPU 101 sets the information display threshold value to100 at the hospital and the house visit destination in the processing ofinformation display threshold value table generation (S130 in FIGS. 2)and to 75 at positions other than those. Moreover, the CPU 101 providesan authentication mechanism such as a password (executes authenticationprocessing), and if the authentication is successful, the CPU 101executes processing of raising the information display threshold valueto 90. That is, the display control portion 104 has the display portion103 display for prompting the doctor to input a password according tothe control by the CPU 101. Then, the doctor inputs the password intothe input portion 102. The CPU 101 determines whether or not thepassword input into the input portion 102 matches the password set inadvance, and if matched, the authentication is successful. As a result,the doctor can see some of the concealed items by authentication using apassword or the like after checking no one is around him/her.

Moreover, there can be an operation method of raising the informationdisplay threshold value by authentication using a password or the likeat a house visit destination in the case of a house visit where thereare many people other than the patient such as a nursing home. Forexample, the information display threshold value at a hospital is set to100, the information display threshold value at a nursing home as thehouse visit destination to 90, and the information display thresholdvalue at positions other than those to 75. As a result, browsing at thehouse visit destination requires security higher than that in thehospital. Then, a password can be input to raise the information displaythreshold value from to 100 at the nursing home for the house visit. Byoperating as above, even if the medical information terminal 1 is leftbehind at the nursing home at the house visit destination, possibilitythat the item with a high information concealing level is browsed by athird party can be reduced.

Fourth Embodiment

In the first embodiment, the information display threshold value is setto 100 at the house visit destination and all the clinical record dataof a patient in the medical information terminal 1 can be browsed. Inthe fourth embodiment, the CPU 101 adds an item of a patient clinicalrecord ID to the information display threshold value table in the firstembodiment and associates the patient clinical record data with theposition ID. As described above, in the fourth embodiment, theinformation display threshold value table in which the position ID isassociated with the patient clinical record data is configured. When theCPU 101 controls the display control portion 104 to have the displayportion 103 display information, the information display threshold valueset in the information display threshold value table is individuallyapplied only to the patient clinical record data associated with thecurrent position information of the medical information terminal 1. Onthe other hand, when another patient clinical record data is to bedisplayed, the CPU 101 uses a default value for the information displaythreshold value. As described above, the CPU 101 sets the informationdisplay threshold value in the information display threshold value tableindividually for each patient depending on the position of the medicalinformation terminal 1.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the information displaythreshold value table generated in the fourth embodiment. In the fourthembodiment, the CPU 101 generates the information display thresholdvalue table as in FIG. 11. It is different from the information displaythreshold value table in the first embodiment (see FIG. 6) inconfiguration in that the patient clinical record ID (patient clinicalrecord data) is associated with the position ID. The CPU 101 determineswhether or not the position of the medical information terminal 1matches any of the position information in the information displaythreshold value table. If it is determined to match, the CPU 101 usesthe information display threshold value set in the generated informationdisplay threshold value table for the associated patient clinical recorddata in the clinical record information concealing display processing.On the other hand, if the clinical record data of the non-associatedpatient clinical record ID is to be displayed, the CPU 101 uses thedefault information display threshold value in the clinical recordinformation concealing display processing.

Here, the processing of the medical information terminal 1 according tothe fourth embodiment and an example of an actual use mode will bedescribed specifically for a case in which the information displaythreshold value table in FIG. 11 is prepared. Here, it is assumed thatthe doctor is visiting two patients described in patient clinical recordIDs 401 and 402, respectively, for house visits. A position ID 1 in FIG.11 indicates a position in a hospital, and the information displaythreshold values for the patient clinical record IDs 401 and 402 are setto 100. A position ID 2 and a position ID 3 are house visit destinationsof the patients described in the patient clinical record IDs 401 and402, respectively. First, if the medical information terminal 1 islocated in the hospital (position ID: 1), the CPU 101 determines thatthe position ID at the current position of the medical informationterminal 1 is 1 based on the position information obtained by theposition information obtaining portion 106. Thus, the CPU 101 sets theinformation display threshold value of the patient clinical record IDs401 and 402 to 100. Therefore, the doctor can browse the descriptioncontents of the clinical record data for both the patient clinicalrecord IDs 401 and 402 with the information display threshold value at100 inside the hospital.

When the doctor carries the terminal to the position matching theposition ID 2 and makes a house visit, the CPU 101 executes processingof setting the information display threshold value based on the positioninformation obtained by the position information obtaining portion 106.In this example, since the medical information terminal 1 is located atthe position ID 2, the information display threshold value of theclinical record data of the patient clinical record ID 401 is set to100, and the information display threshold value of the clinical recorddata of the patient clinical record ID 402 is set to 75. Thus, thedoctor can browse the patient clinical record ID 401 with theinformation display threshold value at 100. At that time, since thedefault value of 75 is used as the information display threshold valueduring browsing of the clinical record data other than the patientclinical record ID 401, the items with the information concealing levelnot lower than 75 cannot be browsed.

According to such configuration, possibility that important medicalinformation of other patients is seen can be reduced when the doctor orthe like leaves the medical information terminal 1 at a patient's house.

Fifth Embodiment

The first embodiment described above is configured such that theinformation concealing level is set for each item in the informationconcealing level table. That is, even if a plurality of descriptioncontents are included in one item, the same information concealing levelis set for all the description contents included in the one item. Thus,with this configuration, all the description contents included in oneitem are concealed or all are displayed. However, even if the doctordetermines that the item may be basically displayed at a house visit, apart of the description contents may be desirably concealed. Forexample, if the “disease name” is set so as to be displayed outside ofthe hospital, past diseases unnecessary at this house visit are alsodisplayed. Patients would not like a third party to know some of thedisease names, and display of all of them is not desirable. In addition,if the item name “diagnosis image” is set to be displayed also outsideof the hospital and if the face of a patient is included in a specificimage of the diagnosis images, display of such image outside of thehospital is not desirable. The fifth embodiment has a configurationwhich enables concealing of a specific part of the description contentsin some items in such cases.

For example, it is assumed that the information concealing level tableas illustrated in FIG. 4 is generated as in the example cited in thefirst embodiment. Specifically, the information concealing levels of thename, address, telephone number and date of birth are set to 80, theinformation concealing levels of the disease name and medicine name areset to 70, and the information concealing level of the diagnoses imageis set to 50. The information display threshold value is set to 100inside the hospital and at the patient's house and to 75 at positionsother than them. In such a case, the items of the name, address andtelephone number at the information display threshold value of 75 ormore are automatically concealed at positions other than the hospitaland the patient's house. However, the disease name and the medicine namehave the information concealing levels of 70 and the diagnosis image hasthe information concealing level of 50, their description contents aredisplayed. A diagnosis image showing the face might lead toidentification of the person. Thus, when the clinical record data iscopied to the terminal so as to generate the information concealinglevel table, the information concealing level for this diagnosis imagemay be individually set higher.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of the information concealing level tablein the fifth embodiment. In the information concealing level table inthe fifth embodiment, a “designation target” is added as compared withthe information concealing level table in the first embodiment. In thedesignation target, description contents for which the informationconcealing level is to be set higher is designated in the plurality ofdescription contents belonging to a target item. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 12, a plurality of images belong to the item of“diagnosis image,” and an “image 501” in the plurality of images isindicated as the description contents for which the informationconcealing level is to be set higher.

For example, it is assumed that a plurality of images are included inthe clinical record data of a patient in the electronic clinical recordsystem in a hospital, and the “image 501” among them is a photo of theface of the patient. Also, it is assumed that when the doctor copies theclinical record data to the medical information terminal 1, the doctordetermines that the “image 501” is the photo of the face so that it isnot desirable to display it while the doctor moves to the house visitdestination. In this case, the doctor performs an operation of newlyadding an item of the “diagnosis image” by using the input portion 102.Specifically, the doctor performs an operation of designating the “image501” for the target designation of the added “diagnosis image” and anoperation of setting the information concealing level of the added“diagnosis image” to a value (80 in this example) higher than theinformation concealing level (50 in this example) of the item of theexisting “diagnosis image.” Then, the CPU 101 edits the informationconcealing level table according to the operations on the input portion102 by the doctor. That is, the CPU 101 newly adds the item of the“diagnosis image” to the information concealing level table, designatesthe “image 501” for the designation target of the added item of the“diagnosis image” and sets the information concealing level of the itemfor which the “image 501” is designated to 80.

This operation and processing may be executed after the processingillustrated in FIG. 2 is finished or may be executed in the process ofthe information concealing level table generation processing illustratedin FIG. 3.

In the clinical record information concealing display processing, theCPU 101 compares the information concealing level (50 in this example)of the diagnosis image, that is, the item to which the “image 501”belongs, with the information concealing level (80 in this example) ofthe image 501 itself. Then, the CPU 101 determines the higherinformation concealing level to be the information concealing level ofthe “image 501.” In this example, the CPU 101 assumes that theinformation concealing level of the “image 501” is 80 and compares thelevel with the information display threshold value and determineswhether or not to display the “image 501.” In this example, though theinformation concealing level of the image 501 is 80, the informationdisplay threshold value at positions other than the hospital and thehouse visit destination is 75. Thus, the CPU 101 does not display thecontents of the “image 501” and thus, patient privacy can be protected.

As described above, the description contents belonging to an item arebasically displayed, but a specific part of the description contents inthe plurality of description contents belonging to the item can beconcealed without displaying all of them. Thus, patient privacy can beprotected while convenience of information browsing of patient clinicalrecord data while the doctor moves to the house visit destination iskept high.

The example described above is configured such that the diagnosis imageis designated as a target for concealing, and the information concealinglevel is set on a per image basis. However, the target of concealing isnot limited to images. In addition, a specific portion in thedescription contents of an item described in text might be concealed.The disease name not directly related to the house visit then or adisease name such as an infectious disease that would heighten anxietyif known to residents in the neighborhood of the house visitdestination, should not be displayed at a position where a third partyother than the doctor and the patient can see. Moreover, the medicinenames for those diseases should not be displayed since the disease namesmight be known.

For example, FIG. 13 illustrates a case in which the clinical recorddata of a patient having “neuropsychiatric disease” and “bronchitis” asthe current diseases is displayed in a hospital. It is assumed that thedoctor is going for a house visit to treat the “bronchitis” for thispatient. At this time, it is assumed that the information concealinglevel for the name, address, telephone number and date of birth is setto 80, the information concealing level for the disease name andmedicine name to 70 and the information concealing level for the findingis set to 50. Also it is assumed that the information display thresholdvalue inside the hospital and at the patient's house is set to 100 andthe information display threshold value at other positions to 75. Withsuch setting, the items of disease name, medicine name and finding canbe browsed outside of the hospital. It is assumed that when the clinicalrecord data is copied to the medical information terminal 1 duringpreparation for a house visit, the doctor determines that the“neuropsychiatric disease” is not directly needed for the house visitand should not be displayed outside of the hospital. In such a case, thedoctor performs an operation of editing the information concealing leveltable and adds the “neuropsychiatric disease” to the target designationportions of the “disease name” and “finding” in which the“neuropsychiatric disease” is described as illustrated in FIG. 14 anddesignates the information concealing level at 80. The CPU 101 sets theinformation concealing level of the “neuropsychiatric disease” which isthe target designation added to the information concealing level tableaccording to the operation by the doctor to 80. Then, in the informationconcealing display processing, the CPU 101 sets the character strings ofthe “neuropsychiatric disease” set as the target designation to beconcealed. That is, the CPU 101 uses the newly added and set informationconcealing level (80 in each case) in determination on whether thecharacter strings of the “neuropsychiatric disease” included in thedescription contents of the disease name and finding are to be displayedor not.

With such setting, at a position where the information display thresholdvalue set based on the position information is larger than 80, thecharacter strings of “neuropsychiatric disease” in the “disease name”and “finding” are concealed, and display is shown as in FIG. 15. FIG. 15is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the display portion103 at the position where the information display threshold value setbased on the position information is larger than 80. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 15, the example in which a character string of the“neuropsychiatric disease” is replaced with a character string of“*****” is illustrated. Other than that, the character strings of the“neuropsychiatric disease” may be replaced with a blank.

As described above, by concealing the specific character strings in thedescription contents of an item, patient privacy can be protected whileconvenience of information browsing of the patient clinical record datacan be kept high similarly to the configuration using the image as thetarget.

Sixth Embodiment

A sixth embodiment is configured such that the information concealinglevel of the specific description contents such as those cited in thefifth embodiment is set automatically based on an onset risk rate of adisease and a use frequency of a drug.

The DISK 109 stores a database including disease names and their onsetrisk rates and a database including the drug names and their usefrequencies in advance. In the information concealing level tablegeneration processing, the CPU 101 reads out the contents of thedatabases and determines whether or not there is an onset risk rate ofthe disease name or a use frequency of the drug name matching thedescription contents of the item name “disease name” and “medicinename.” If there is the matching disease name or medicine name, the CPU101 sets the information concealing level according to the onset riskrate and the use frequency stored in the databases.

According to such configuration, the number of times of setting sessionsby the doctor for the information concealing level of a specificdescription content is reduced. Therefore, a burden on preparation for ahouse visit by the doctor can be alleviated.

Moreover, a table individually setting the concealing levels for somedisease names and medicine names may be stored in the DISK 109 inadvance. In this case, in the information concealing level tablegeneration processing, the CPU 101 executes processing of reading outthe contents of the table and checking the read-out contents with thedescription contents of each item. If there are description contentsmatching the read-out contents as the result of checking processing, theCPU 101 adds the item name to which the description contents belong, tothe information concealing level table. Moreover, the CPU 101 sets thedescription contents for the designation target of the added item nameand sets the information concealing level of the description contents toa value set in the read-out table. According to such configuration, evenif the use frequency or onset risk rate is not stored in the database,the number of times of setting sessions by the doctor for theinformation concealing level of a specific description content can bereduced.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described, butthe present invention is not limited to these embodiments and capable ofvarious modifications and changes within a range of the gist thereof.

For example, in the embodiments, encryption, ciphering, non-display andoverlapped display are indicated as the methods of concealing medicalinformation, but the present invention is not limited to these methods.

Furthermore, in the embodiments, the position information obtainingportion has been discussed with the use of the GPS (Global PositioningSystem), but the present invention is not limited to the arrangementswith the GPS. For example, it is possible to obtain the positioninformation using the LCS (Location Service) protocol of the LTE (LongTerm Evolution) communication standard. Some positioning methods aredefined in the LCS, including a method of determining the position of aterminal by means of the difference between arrival times of signalsreceived at the terminal from a plurality of base stations. In this way,it is possible to determine the latitude and longitude of the terminalwith the position information obtained by the LCS, as is the case withthe position information in the GPS. The embodiments discussed abovetherefore can be realized with the position information obtained by theLCS as well.

OTHER EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is realized also by executing the followingprocessing. That is, software (program) for realizing the function ofthe aforementioned embodiments is supplied to a network or a system oran apparatus through various storage media, and a computer (or a CPU,MPU and the like) of the system or the apparatus reads out a programcode and executes processing. In this case, the program and the storagemedium storing the program constitute the present invention.

While the present invention has been described with reference toexemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of thefollowing claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as toencompass all such modifications and equivalent structures andfunctions.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No.2012-288607, filed Dec. 28, 2012, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. A medical information terminal for input anddisplay of medical information of a patient, comprising: a positioninformation obtaining unit configured to obtain position information ofthe medical information terminal; an information concealing levelsetting unit configured to set an information concealing level fordescription contents of each item of the medical information; and aninformation concealing unit configured to determine an informationdisplay threshold value indicating a threshold value at which thedescription contents of each item are displayed according to theposition information obtained by the position information obtaining unitand conceal the description contents of each item if the informationconcealing level of each item of the medical information is at theinformation display threshold value or more.
 2. The medical informationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the information concealing levelindicates a degree that should not be known to a third party other thana doctor and a patient.
 3. The medical information terminal according toclaim 1, wherein the position information obtaining unit obtains theposition information by a GPS (Global Positioning System).
 4. Themedical information terminal according to claim 1, wherein theinformation concealing level setting unit allows the informationconcealing level to be set to a same value for all the descriptioncontents of each item in the medical information.
 5. The medicalinformation terminal according to claim 1, wherein the informationconcealing level setting unit allows the information concealing level tobe set for a part of the description contents of each item in themedical information, and if there are the information concealing levelsfor all the description contents, the information concealing levelsetting unit compares the information concealing level for all thedescription contents with the information concealing level for the partand determines the higher information concealing level as theinformation concealing level for the part of the description contents,and wherein the information concealing unit uses the informationconcealing level determined by the information concealing level settingunit for concealing the part of the description contents.
 6. The medicalinformation terminal according to claim 1, further comprising anauthenticating unit configured to authenticate a user, Wherein theinformation concealing unit raises the information display thresholdvalue if the user can be authenticated by the authenticating unit. 7.The medical information terminal according to claim 1, wherein theinformation concealing unit conceals the description contents with theinformation concealing level at the information display threshold valueor more by executing processing of displaying by encryption, processingof applying ciphering or processing of non-display.
 8. The medicalinformation terminal according to claim 1, wherein the informationconcealing unit conceals the description contents with the informationconcealing level at the information display threshold value or more byenlarging a description content which is not concealed in the medicalinformation and displaying the description content overlapping with thedescription contents with the information concealing level at theinformation display threshold value or more.
 9. The medical informationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the information concealing unitindividually sets the information display threshold value each for thepatient regarding the medical information stored in the medicalinformation terminal according to position information obtained by theposition information obtaining unit.
 10. The medical informationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the position informationobtaining unit obtains the position information of the medicalinformation terminal by means of the LCS (Location Service) protocoldefined in the LTE (Long Term Evolution) communication standard.